Exercise centers have been around for a long time. At some point, the idea of combining health and fitness took hold, and the idea of a health club was born. Jack LaLanne is credited with starting the first modern health club in Oakland, California in 1936, combining exercise with nutrition. His center offered supervised exercise and weight training with a health food bar and nutrition advice. The idea of full service health centers has been eclipsed by basic exercise centers more recently. Many workout centers now compete for customers who want to build strength but who aren’t seeking a full health center, and you don’t have to look very far to find one. They are filled with treadmills, stair climbing machines, stationary bikes, and elliptical walkers all pointed at large television monitors for entertainment, as well as resistive weight training machines. They may have group classes with a trainer. Nothing wrong with any of that, but can we call those health centers?
Then we consider the medical field. When patients have physical/mobility issues requiring assistance, they may get assigned physical therapy (PT). PT centers have trained therapists who generally have much greater skill and training in rehabilitating damaged tendons or rebuilding strength than exercise center personal trainers. They combine medical science and exercise training, but only for very specific rehabilitation. Once the patient reaches a normal level of mobility, the PT ends.
So what do you do if you don’t have a physical injury, and you want to do more than basic exercise training? The time may be ripe for full service health clubs/centers to return to prominence. How do you know if you have found one? One clue is to see if the health center has therapies beyond just exercise equipment. Second would be the level of medical knowledge available at the center. You need both because you are seeking health, of which exercise is only a part. Put these together and you have a real health center.
A deep dive into immersion therapy
One therapy that is gaining popularity is cold water immersion (CWI). Serious strength trainers are finding this therapy to be valuable in reducing inflammation caused by workouts, especially overzealous workouts that cause some muscle strain. So this therapy is a natural addition to transition an exercise center into a true health club. But we are learning that there are many benefits of cold water therapy that go way beyond exercise.
Stress reduction
We’ve already discussed the “stress adaptation” effect which leads to stress resilience. Cold water enthusiasts report that the cold is initially a shock, but that after repeated immersions they grow accustomed to it. Studies show how their cortisol levels, which initially spike, normalize with repeated therapy, and the long-term effects then translate to other stressors to which they become stress resilient. This results in better cortisol management.
Immune system strengthening
According to researchers in a review study published in PLoS One, which reviewed 11 other studies across 3177 participants, repeated cold water therapy caused an overall 29% decrease in sickness susceptibility. Stress “talks” with the immune system in many ways, and we know that bad stress also weakens the immune system, making people more prone to getting whatever bug is affecting friends and family, as well as susceptibility to chronic disease. (1) But proper cold therapy, or even better, cold/hot therapy, is a good stress that has long-term positive effects on the immune system. This is a simple rule: any good stress is helpful to your immune system, and chronic bad stress tears it down by making it work too hard fighting a non-existent foe.
The study also found that cold water therapy generally improved quality of sleep, mood, and overall quality of life. Again, it’s a good stress, which counters bad stress, so it should not be surprising that this therapy would inhibit the ravages of chronic stress.
Another major result of chronic stress is inflammation. It is the precursor to virtually all diseases not invoked by outside invaders or trauma. It is enemy number one to your health. This study found that cold water therapy not only reduces inflammation immediately, but also long term, over time. This is perhaps the biggest single reason the therapy is effective in promoting health.
Relax
Cold water therapy might not sound relaxing, but those who practice it are finding it relaxes them after therapy. In a study published in Biology (Basel), researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to study brain changes after a few minutes of cold water immersion. First they noted, “An emerging body of evidence indicates that regular swimming in cold water reduces fatigue, lessens depressive symptoms, and improves general well-being.” But how? First they noted that the release of various neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, cortisol, dopamine, norepinephrine, and ?-endorphin, result in emotional and stress regulation as well as reward processing. They noted that interaction of four brain processes were involved in the positive effects of cold therapy: the default mode, salience, frontoparietal, and visual lateral networks. (4)
You have a sympathetic nervous system, which is the action system meant especially for “fight or flight”, and a parasympathetic system which is your “rest and digest” system — your relaxation system. CWI activates your parasympathetic system, which is why the therapy is relaxing.
The researchers did not study the relaxation effect of warmth immediately after cold exposure. The sudden reversal of conditions from cold to very warm causes a further relaxation response. The dual effects are quite powerful in combination. The body’s protective mechanisms being thrown into reverse make the healing effects even more dramatic.
Aquarius throws cold water on Cancer
So you would expect that cold water therapy might even help guard against cancer because of its positive effect on the immune system, relaxation of the body, and reduction of inflammation. Published in iScience, researchers examined how cold water therapy has been used over the ages and how it has shown promise in treating many diseases, but lamented that very little modern research has been done. Still, there is some. According to these researchers, “While clinical trials using cold therapy for cancer treatment are still limited, recent research shows promising results in experimental animal cancer models.” (3) In particular, in a study published in Surgery, researchers showed an inhibition in tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) with surface cooling, where “local hypothermia” had a protective effect, almost abolishing the apoptotic (cell death) effect of TNF-alpha. (2) Cold therapy has a significant effect on inhibiting cancer, although more research is needed to understand the mechanism.
So we have a potent therapy which is often neglected in many fitness centers. But its popularity is growing because it works.
Don’t be ordinary
Health is always a multi-faceted endeavor. Exercise is just one piece of the process. Health-promoting strategies all declare war on chronic inflammation and stress. A good health center will use every technique available to promote health, not just exercise. There are of course additional tools we have not yet discussed. Perhaps even more will be discovered, or re-discovered, and a serious health center will incorporate those when they are shown to have therapeutic value. Disease is easy to promote: just do what most of your neighbors do. Health takes effort, but it also can be an adventure. Don’t settle for the typical neighborhood exercise mill — go for real health.
Dr. Nemec’s Review
Exercise is a very important lifestyle change to make to promote long-term health. But there are Seven Basic Steps to Total Health, not one — and the more of these that are achieved, the higher the level of total health in physical body — in mind, brain, emotions, and spirit.
How can something painful be good for you?
When you emerge 3/4 of your body in extremely cold water, it is initially painful because of the vasoconstriction of the blood vessels. But what is important at the cellular level, the level that affects the DNA and the genes, is the environment that the cells are in. Cold is a shock therapy, but the key factor is how long you’re in the cold.
That which does not kill you makes you stronger!
There’s a principal in physiology called the Hormesis principle. In general, this principle states that stressors to a certain point stimulate adaptation and positive epigenetic changes systemically throughout the body. But if that stressor goes beyond a certain time limit or quantity then it becomes detrimental, and it has a negative impact at the cellular and genetic level.
How long, how much
When you’re looking to stress the body in a health promoting way, there are two important factors: time and quantity. When it’s 40° below zero, there’s a difference between walking outside in a bathing suit for three seconds versus three minutes. How many people can walk outside for three seconds? Probably most. How many people can walk outside for three minutes? Not many. How many people can walk outside in this weather for 30 minutes — practically no one. Cold plunge therapy is done for three minutes for maximum benefit.
Warming versus cooking
You can see the benefits of cold therapy when you look at the reverse. Let’s look at heat. If you go into 100° water, it feels nice — it warms you, increases circulation, promotes vasodilation, and increases circulation. But now raise the temperature to 110°. If you leave someone in that water long enough, you’ll start damaging cells. Why?
Because all the reactions in the body work by enzymes. Enzymes are catalysts that speed up chemical reactions and enzymes are heat dependent — that’s why your body works at 98.6°F. If you stay in 110° long enough, you would denature the enzymes of cellular reactions throughout your entire body, and this would cause you to go into great dysfunction: your body would shut down eventually because the enzymes would no longer function. So at one temperature it’s health promoting, and at another temperature, it would take your life. It’s just a matter of temperature and time. The same applies for cold therapy and for most other stress therapies that promote health.
Take-home message
Short-term stressors stimulate the genes to produce cells that are stress resistant and will live longer. This acute cold stress stimulates the epigenetic response, turning on and off genes in such a way that it produces longevity cells — that is, cells that live longer and cells that are healthier in every way. Cold therapy is a type of weight training at the cellular level for the entire body. It doesn’t localize one cell. It makes them all stronger and more resilient.
The beauty of cold
Most people by nature do not like cold. This is probably because our bodies have to expend energy to maintain a 98.6 body temperature, so at anything below 77° the body has to start protecting itself by wearing more layers of “clothes” to insulate the warmth and protect the body from losing its warmth. But we’ve adapted to that by wearing winter clothes. Throughout the ages, people have intuitively known that stressing the body certain ways promotes a healthier body. This is why cold therapy was done over 1000 years ago, because it had positive benefits, and whatever had positive benefits continued in the culture.
Words from the master teacher
My power is made perfect in weakness. And Be Perfect as your Heavenly Father is Perfect. Many spiritual principles have far reaching affects, not only producing spiritual benefits, but also mental, emotional, and physical benefits as well.
Join the Revolution
The average drive of our members to come to our facility is over two hours. The reason people drive from great distances is because we have a unique facility: not only do we have fitness equipment from around the world that very few gyms in the country offer, but also we have many top anti-aging and longevity therapies — cold/hot therapy being just one of them. Come on by and get a tour of the facility, and if you like what you see, you too can join the Revolution.
What is the Revolution?
It’s a new way of living and thinking. It’s thriving when you’re 105 in body mind, brain, emotions, and spirit. It knows no limits. Its seeks to optimize. It doesn’t settle for normal. It sees a normal life like the new smoking — meaning it is hazardous for your health. We were not created to be normal. We were created to be all that God intended us to be in body, mind, brain, emotion, and spirit.
(1) Cain T, Brinsley J, Bennett H, Nelson M, Maher C, et al. (2025) Effects of cold-water immersion on health and wellbeing: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS ONE 20(1): e0317615. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317615
(2) Grazioso TP, Djouder N. The forgotten art of cold therapeutic properties in cancer: A comprehensive historical guide. iScience. 2023 May 29;26(7):107010. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107010. PMID: 37332670; PMCID: PMC10275721., https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10275721/
(3) Westermann S, Vollmar B, Thorlacius H, Menger MD. Surface cooling inhibits tumor necrosis factor-alpha-induced microvascular perfusion failure, leukocyte adhesion, and apoptosis in the striated muscle. Surgery. 1999 Nov;126(5):881-9. PMID: 10568188.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10568188/
(4) Yankouskaya A, Williamson R, Stacey C, Totman JJ, Massey H. Short-Term Head-Out Whole-Body Cold-Water Immersion Facilitates Positive Affect and Increases Interaction between Large-Scale Brain Networks. Biology (Basel). 2023 Jan 29;12(2):211. doi: 10.3390/biology12020211. PMID: 36829490; PMCID: PMC9953392.
(not used) Esperland D, de Weerd L, Mercer JB. Health effects of voluntary exposure to cold water – a continuing subject of debate. Int J Circumpolar Health. 2022 Dec;81(1):2111789. doi: 10.1080/22423982.2022.2111789. PMID: 36137565; PMCID: PMC9518606. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9518606/
